I had traditional liposuction on my thighs 6 months ago. Only a small amount was taken to use for ft to the breast however I have a patch of numbness on my lower thigh and knee and it’s causing nerve pain when my leg is tapped or knocks against something. My surgeon keeps telling me liposuction doesn’t cause numbness but I’m worried it’s been 6 months that it’s likely to permanent. The other areas of numbness I had have resolved
January 15, 2022
Answer: Numbness & Pain after Liposuction I hate to say things so bluntly, but your surgeon is wrong. Liposuction can cause numbness. Liposuction is done by passing a cannula back and forth within the tissues through which nerves run to the skin. If one of these nerves is hit, it can either be totally transected or simply injured by the cannula. If it is completely divided, the numbness is somewhat permanent. It can resolve over time if the fibers from surrounding nerves move in to take its place. If the nerve was only injured, then the numbness is either relatively fleeting, returning in a week or 2 or requires regrowth of the nerve fibers from the point of injury to the skin. It sounds as if your injury was the latter. Once the nerves have grown back to the skin, you must then relearn what you are feeling and, initially, what you feel is quite unusual and occasionally painful. Nerves are very much Like a telephone cable. If someone cuts a cable and the repairman is colorblind and cannot put the cables back exactly the way they were, you then cannot call or receive calls normally. The only way the telephone company could correct this is to do so at the switchboard. Similarly, once the nerve is injured you must we learn where all the fibers are. This takes a special type of therapy known as desensitization to stop the abnormal sensation and sensibility reeducation so that you we learn where the fibers are. I suspect the areas where the numbness returned fairly quickly were the minimally damage to nerves where only the electrical impulse was interrupted and not the entire nerve fiber. If the surgeon you saw is a Plastic Surgeon, he or she should be familiar with sensibility reeducation from their hand surgery training. If not, I suggest that you see a plastic surgeon who also does hand surgery. This is correctable, but does require a little work on your part.
Helpful 4 people found this helpful
January 15, 2022
Answer: Numbness & Pain after Liposuction I hate to say things so bluntly, but your surgeon is wrong. Liposuction can cause numbness. Liposuction is done by passing a cannula back and forth within the tissues through which nerves run to the skin. If one of these nerves is hit, it can either be totally transected or simply injured by the cannula. If it is completely divided, the numbness is somewhat permanent. It can resolve over time if the fibers from surrounding nerves move in to take its place. If the nerve was only injured, then the numbness is either relatively fleeting, returning in a week or 2 or requires regrowth of the nerve fibers from the point of injury to the skin. It sounds as if your injury was the latter. Once the nerves have grown back to the skin, you must then relearn what you are feeling and, initially, what you feel is quite unusual and occasionally painful. Nerves are very much Like a telephone cable. If someone cuts a cable and the repairman is colorblind and cannot put the cables back exactly the way they were, you then cannot call or receive calls normally. The only way the telephone company could correct this is to do so at the switchboard. Similarly, once the nerve is injured you must we learn where all the fibers are. This takes a special type of therapy known as desensitization to stop the abnormal sensation and sensibility reeducation so that you we learn where the fibers are. I suspect the areas where the numbness returned fairly quickly were the minimally damage to nerves where only the electrical impulse was interrupted and not the entire nerve fiber. If the surgeon you saw is a Plastic Surgeon, he or she should be familiar with sensibility reeducation from their hand surgery training. If not, I suggest that you see a plastic surgeon who also does hand surgery. This is correctable, but does require a little work on your part.
Helpful 4 people found this helpful